Stripping paint from tunnel

fourbarrel

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May 5, 2003
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Location
St George,New Brunswick,Canada
Holy S#*t some of that paint just does not want to come off.So far I've gone through a spray can of aircraft paint remover,cant remember the brand(was whatever the local auto parts store has),and a small can of jell type paint stripper from Home Hardware(Canadian chain).I managed to get the running boards mostlty done but there's some spots on the sides of the tunnel that are being quite stubborn.Am I not getting it on thick enough or not letting it set long enough?Has anyone else had any kind of problems removing the paint from theirs?This has been over 3 nights working a couple of hours a night trying to get this done.
 
stipper is weird stuff, when you apply the past, you must do it in one pass, make all brush strokes in the same direction. after you do your first scraping, clean the surface with water and dry before applying the second coat. i know this sounds dumb, i have stripped many cars and this method works the most efficent.

steel your wifes best hard plastic spatula, grind it to a nice edge, this works good on aluminum so you wont scratch it up.

when your ready to polish it, rremove rivots, wet sand with 2000 grit, then buff with a 3in wool buffing pad in a drill with compound. then reistall rivots.
 
If you go to like home depot or a hardware store there is a can of zip strip with a black label... not yellow, its says right on it for 5-6+ coats of paint removal, its heavy duty zip strip and it works A-1, it eats that stuff off like butter, I stripped my whole tunnel in less then an hour total, put it on thick and leave it alone, let the stripper do the work, then just hosed it all off.
 
Took me 3 or 4 hours and about a 6 pack to do mine. I used the Zip Strip in the black can that mrviper700 mentioned. I did have a few stubburn spots. I took some oooo steel wool and rubbed the paint off with that and stripper. For the most part it came off fairly easy. Much easier than the Harley tank I'm doing now!
 

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You'll find stripper will work better if it's in a warm area. I assume you're doing this in a garage or shed. Any heat there??
 
Yea I'm doing it in my shed and unfortunatly the only heat I have is a small kerosun heater that will keep the chill off but by no means over warms you.The walls are insulated but not the roof(yet) so once that's done I should be able to get it warmer in there.
Going to get some more stripper today if I can find someplace open that sells it and try to finish it up.
 
I did mine in 85 degree sunshine in the summer, maybe thats why it ate it off so easily??


get black label zipstrip, home depot or lowes or a hardware store should have it!!
 


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